The important things
by iandin123
Summary: Courtney and her dad, Tony, have many squabbles during Courtney's childhood, but it's what makes her who she is. No matter how crazy. Ficlets of Courtney and her dad when Court was 10, and later when she's 16. Mostly based on Psych and Shawn and Henry.


The Important things

* * *

**_How many Red Shirts?_**

_10 years-old_

"Dad!" Courtney whined in the restaurant. She wore a red tank-top and shorts, with sandals. Her somewhat-curly, mocha hair was tied back today, with a single strip of hair dangling in front of her big, dark-chocolate eyes. Her freckles were noticeable from her sunburn.

Her father, Tony, took a sip of his coke. He too, had mocha brown hair, along with dark brown eyes and freckles. He wore a red-orange, Hawaiian T-Shirt, with khaki shorts, and sandals. He also had a sunburn.

"No buts Courtney. I want you to tell me how many people in this restaurant have red-shirts." Her father said. Courtney sighed, and pouted.

"I thought that after we left the water park, we'd go get some food and relax! I can't believe you're turning back on your promise!!" 10 year-old Courtney crossed her arms.

"When did I ever promise you I wouldn't train you?"

"This isn't training, this is a childhood filled with my dad making me into a mini-police officer! _On vacation!!!_"

"Not just a mini-police officer, a detective!"

"Whatever happened to Barbie dolls and Dora the Explorer for me?"

"That's all gone, kiddo." Tony took another sip of his coke. "Now, how many people have red-shirts on.?" He turned his daughter's head to the crowd of people in the restaurant.

"Do sweaters and stuff like that count?"

"Go for it."

Courtney squinted her eyes a little, and took in the scene. Her eyes scanned the room fast, and she opened her memory, remembering all the people who had red-shirts/sweaters/misc from when she came in. She compared this info to what she was seeing now, and turned to her dad to give a conclusion.

"54 people. 22 in T-shirts, 19 in sweaters, and 13 in tank tops." Courtney said. Her dad nodded.

"Alright, good time. Took about 12 seconds for that, but you're wrong. And this is the punishment." He then took one of Courtney's fries from her plate. "Man, these guy's fries are the best!"

"Wait," Courtney said. "I'm sure I saw 54 people wearing a red shirt of some kind here."

Tony gently grabbed her chin, and nudged it down, making her look at herself. Her eyes then widened.

"Oh, right."

Her dad then ruffled her hair, as he taught her a lesson which would come in handy a lot later in life. "Remember, Courtney. Believing and having confidence in yourself is great, but you can't get that ego too big. You have to remember to trust and believe other people, and sometimes, you have to let others be right. Because if I hadn't shown you your tank-top, you would've gotten that all wrong. So, let others have the limelight. You'll get your moment another time. Alright, champ?"

Courtney thought about this, then smiled to her dad. "Alright daddy," she then grabbed one of his fries, and said, "And you'll let me have this fry, right?"

* * *

_16 years-old_

Courtney sat at one of the benches, playing with her PDA. They all had been given a day where cameras wouldn't try to capture every single thing they did, a request from Courtney and her "Lawyers". She'd been playing Celebrity star-ship, Fifa 08, and Tetris on her PDA, lately playing some occasional Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship, maybe a little Owl City too, but she would never admit that. Her PDA had to be on ready to call for her "Lawyer".

"Hey Courtney!"

Courtney stopped in the middle of firing a laser at Britney Spears' head and turned, to see that Lindsay had just said hi to her. Nothing against the girl, but Courtney wasn't really in the mood for non-stop blabbering about nails and-Did Lindsay just say Courtney's name _right?_

"Lindsay, did you just get my name right?" Courtney asked, eyebrows shot up high. Lindsay nodded.

"Why wouldn't I, silly!" Lindsay joked. Courtney nodded slowly, still a little shocked. "I just wanted to see if we could spend time together, maybe get to know each other better!"

Courtney looked behind Lindsay, and far away near Chris' cabin, she saw Beth with a Princess Beth Doll, talking to Chris. "Let me guess, Beth can't talk right now since she's talking to Chris, so you came here to talk to me?"

"Well, yeah," Lindsay confessed. "but, I also want to spend time with you so I can know you! So we won't have to be mean to each other."

Courtney _did_ feel bad about this. She knew competition brought out her ugly side, and her dad hadn't taught her much about saying apologies either, so she was pretty much stuck as the 'Competitive Type A'. Courtney looked into Lindsay's eyes, and she knew Lindsay was sincere, and trying to be her friend. Truth be told, she just wanted to be alone, but Courtney could never resist puppy dog eyes. Well, the cameras weren't on today, so she could try too.

"Alright, Lindsay." Courtney sighed. "But _only _for today, I'll hang out with you."

Lindsay squealed. "Yay!" Lindsay grabbed Courtney's wrist and dragged her back to the trailer, talking of nails, celebrities, boys, and dolls on the way.

**Hour later**

"Lindsay," Courtney sighed. "look, I might as well be honest with you. My childhood...well, it wasn't filled with dolls, nails, celebrities, and _definitely_ not boys." Well, not counting the ones her dad hadn't hunted down yet. "So, I have no clue what you're rambling on about."

Lindsay just smiled. "Well then, let's talk about something about you!" Courtney was surprised, but opened up. After all, it wouldn't hurt to talk.

"Well, all my problems pretty much started with my dad..."

**Hour later. Again.**

"Wow!" Lindsay gasped. "I can't believe your dad locked you in a trunk just to teach you how to get out of it! That's kinda funny though!"

Courtney smiled. "Well, at least I didn't have to pay for breaking the back lights on our car!" Both girls started laughing. The laughter slowly deceased, and Courtney said, "You know, I had a fun time Lindsay."

Lindsay smiled to Courtney. "Me too, Courtney! I didn't know you're dad was like that! Makes my dad a saint when he canceled my Visa!"

Courtney was about to say something about her dad, when a loud, booming, _sadistic,_ voice interrupted her.

"Castmates! Please report to the cafeteria! We've got a little challenge for you!" Chris' voice boomed over the loud-speakers.

"Great," Courtney rolled her eyes. "I wonder what it is _this_ time." She and Lindsay headed for the cafeteria. In there, they met up with Beth, who had just finished her talk with Chris, and Harold and Duncan, where Duncan was giving Harold a noogie, until Courtney came in.

"Hey, Princess." Duncan greeted. Courtney rolled her eyes, but blushed. "Whatever, ogre." Duncan smiled, knowing this was her version of a 'Hi! Good weather, huh?'

Chris walked in, along with Chef who was holding a big jar filled with jelly beans of all colors. Chris cleared his throat, so he could have the room's attention.

"Hello, contestants!" He heard some muffled grumbles, and a fork thrown to him, but missed, but he ignored it. "Now, as you all know, our doll market didn't strike off to well." Chris showed them Courtney, Lindsay, Beth, Duncan, and Harold dolls, along with props for them too. "So, we're having a little contest for all the dolls!"

Duncan scoffed. "Why would we want dolls anyway?"

"Because one of them is filled with 1,000 dollars, and a free trip to Vancouver for tommorow." The remaining contestant's jaws dropped. "Now that you all understand, the challenge is...find out how many red jelly beans are in this jar!"

Courtney almost broke out in laughter. Now, she had to apologize to her dad, telling him that his 'training' did pay off. Then, she looked to her competitors. Harold was measuring the jar, Beth looking closely. Duncan looked pretty bored, and Lindsay looked like she was doing math with her fingers. Courtney rolled her eyes(For the THIRD TIME TODAY), and looked closely at the jar.

Her eyes squinted, and she glanced at the jar quickly, examining it's contents. Her eyes went back to being normal, and she started walking over to Chris, but was stopped by Lindsay's conversation with Beth.

"I _so_ wanna win those dolls!" Lindsay whined. Beth nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, they were soo cute! And, they were voodoo too!"

"Yeah, but not because of that, Beth! I want to give the Beth dolls to you, the Harry dolls to Harry, the Domnic dolls to Domnic, and the Courtney dolls to Courtney!"

Beth was a little surprised. "But, Lindsay, we don't like Courtney, remember?"

"Well, I used to not like her, but we were talking, and did you know that she's never played with a doll in her life?" Lindsay said, and Beth gasped.

"Really? That's, like, horrible!"

"I know, that's why I wanna give her some of the dolls!" Lindsay and Beth kept continuing about their conversation of Courtney, which, for some reason, had migrated on to Jonas Brothers, as Courtney listened. It made her feel really nice when Lindsay was thinking about the dolls, but, Vancouver...

_Let others have the limelight._

Courtney made up her mind.

"Lindsay," she whispered in her ear, "there are 564 red jelly beans in that jar."

Lindsay asked her if she was sure, and Courtney nodded. Chris blew his air-horn.

"TIME's UP! What are your answers?"

Harold went up first. "Judging from my calculations, there should be 959 red jelly beans in that jar!"

"EEEEEHH!! So close Harold, but not really. Wrong! Next?"

Beth went next. "345?"

"Wrong! Next?"

"Two?"

Courtney sighed. "Couldn't you even try on that one, Duncan?"

"Nope."

"Well," Chris said. "Either way, your wrong dude! Courtney?"

Courtney shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well then, I guess you shouldn't be criticizing Duncan, at least he gave a number!"

Duncan snickered at Courtney, and she stuck her tongue at him.

"And last, but certainly not least, Lindsay?"

"564 red jelly beans, Chris!"

Chris jaw dropped, as well as Chef's. Chris closed his mouth and checked a card, which had the answer, and sure enough, Lindsay was right. "Whoa! Lindsay is the winner!"

Everyone's but Courtney's face was filled with surprise and confusion. Courtney just shrugged.

"Dumb luck?"

Duncan joked. "You mean Dumb Blond Luck?" In which, Courtney responded by elbowing Duncan in the ribs, but not without a giggle escaping her lips.

Chris didn't looked too pleased with letting someone go to Vancouver, while he was stuck at this crummy studio, but a prize is a prize.

"Alright, Lindsay. Ready for Vancouver?"

"Yeah! C'mon, guys! We're all going!" Cheers were heard through the cafeteria, and the contestants left, with Lindsay in their arms.

**Later that night.**

Courtney was about to go to sleep, when her PDA starts ringing. Courtney reached for her PDA and saw that it had a message on it. From her _dad_.

It said:

_Courtney,_

_Doing great in competition. I hope to see you soon, kiddo. But not too soon. Also, I attached a picture. What item is missing in the pictures?_

_*Shows two pictures of offices*_

_Good night, Princess. _

_P.S. Stay away from the green-haired boy!_

Courtney smiled at her father. Even to this day, he was still 'training' her, as he calls it, and making sure boys stay away from her. She wrote back:

_Dear Dad,_

_Yeah, it's been fun, I guess. Still can't believe that my own brother, Michael, got me back into the show, with a fake law suit. Oh well._

_The paper clip next to the computer monitor on the left side is missing from the right picture._

_And, dad? Sorry, you were totally right about the whole 'How many people are wearing a red t-shirt' thing. I owe you._

_Good night, Daddy!_

_P.S. I'll date who I wanna date! Unless he's a serial or cereal killer, but that's unlikely._

* * *

Yes, I know I have other stories, but this is cute!

Yeah, really based off on Psych. Well, the beginning of the show, when Shawn and his dad have those 'bonding' moments. Yeah, this will also explain lots of thing about Courtney's personality. This was just a first. This will probably be a three-shot or something, but eh.

I like Tony! He seems like a cool dad!

I do not own TDI. Or Psych. I do own Tony.


End file.
